BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Leaders of police agencies in two Jefferson County cities singled out in a listing of America's Most Dangerous cities lashed out at the real estate website that compiled the list, calling the rankings inaccurate, unfair and flawed at best.

Neighborhoodscout.com is a Massachusetts-based search engine for potential home buyers that includes crime statistics, school performance ratings and real estate appreciation rates. The site recently listed three Alabama cities - Bessemer, Birmingham and Gadsden- on its annual list of crime hot spots.

Police and city officials in Bessemer and Birmingham became the latest to refute the site's rankings and methodology. In past years, others have done so, including lawmen in Atlanta and Spartanburg.

"The story is interesting and accomplishes the purpose of driving people to the website, which most of us had never heard of prior to this report,'' said Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper. "It's obvious from their math they simply took the reported numbers and divided them by overnight population."

According to the site, the study is of "cities with 25,000 or more people, based on the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault. Data used for this research are 1. The number of violent crimes reported to the FBI to have occurred in each city, and 2.The population of each city.

The site had this to say about Bessemer: "For Bessemer, we found that violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon." The site said Bessemer had a crime rate of "142 per 1,000."

As for the Birmingham, the site said the city is safer than only 1 percent of cities in America. Birmingham, they said, has a crime rate of "85 per 1,000." With that rate, they said, Birmingham has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities.

In 2013, Bessemer and Birmingham were the two Alabama cities that made the list at 16 and 25. In 2012, Bessemer was the only Alabama city at No. 84.

Bessemer police Chief Nathaniel Rutledge said he disagrees with the site's findings. "I would assume they have the right to report any public information they gather, however, it is unfair to manipulate it as such to unfavorably depict the true image of our community,'' he said.

While the report, Rutledge said, references a credible source - the FBI - it didn't heed the agency's warning, which pointed out the statistics were preliminary, and based only on six months of reporting. Routinely, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report releases caution against using the data to compare cities, warning that it creates misleading perceptions.

The report, the chief said, does not take into account the size of the city, the demographics or even the number of cities that actually report crimes to the FBI. The reality, Bessemer city officials said, is that major crimes in Bessemer have dropped 25 percent over the past three years, including an 8 percent drop from 2012 to 2013.

Homicides in Bessemer have been cut in half from the 11 reported in 2011, and the double-digit numbers of the years before 2010.

"We've hired additional officers in our police department and plan to hire an additional 15 or so this year,'' said Toraine Norris, spokesman for Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley. "We're doing our part to make Bessemer safer, and that is reflected in the actual crime numbers collected by our police department, not in a website's flawed rankings."

Birmingham finished 2013 with 66 slayings, down seven over 2012. Roper said 2013 was an extremely challenging year for the department, and for the community.

"We have experienced significant progress in overall crime reduction efforts with an 11 percent decrease in crime in 2012 and another significant reduction in 2013," he said in a January interview, "but homicides continue to be a challenge, not just for Birmingham but many urban areas throughout this nation."

Roper agreed the site's methodology is based on several flawed assumptions, not including the fact that the FBI strongly discourages using the data for comparison.

"In some instances, you're comparing one city's apples with another city's oranges,'' Roper said. "In fact, some cities report partial numbers and others don't even report at all, so a valid comprehensive listing is impossible."

There is, he said, no mention of any variables, but basically a rudimentary level of research.

"I can't speak for other cities, but Birmingham is experiencing historic reductions in crime, and the hundreds of thousands of people that visit the city each year gives credence to the fact that Birmingham is a city on the rise,'' Roper said. "We understand there is more work to be done, but the progress has been tremendous."